


The Great White Bear

by inquisitor_tohru



Category: The Terror (TV 2018)
Genre: Bears, Cannibalism, Canonical Character Death, Exile, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Post-Canon, Reincarnation, Rituals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-28
Updated: 2020-09-28
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:02:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26583352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inquisitor_tohru/pseuds/inquisitor_tohru
Summary: For a year and a day, Silna travelled in exile, searching.
Relationships: Lady Silence | Silna & Tuunbaq
Comments: 8
Kudos: 13
Collections: Darkest Night 2020





	The Great White Bear

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Tish](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tish/gifts).



For a year and a day, Silna travelled in exile, searching. Few knew or understood Tuunbaq as well as her father had done, and that knowledge and understanding was now hers to keep. 

Tuunbaq was made of muscles and spells, and while muscles could atrophy and die, spells were not bound by such trifling things as physicality or mortality. Tuunbaq was not an eater of souls for the pleasure of it. It was as much nourishment for him - for in that lifetime Tuunbaq had been born  _ he  _ \- as the seal meat he'd brought was for her, before she cut her tongue. If her father had been allowed to die out on the ice, Tuunbaq would have eaten his soul so that he, too, might be reborn one day. Nothing that Tuunbaq devoured was destroyed - only changed. The same was true of her tongue, which she'd swallowed half of during their shared ritual, hot blood still gushing from the wound. Tuunbaq ate the other half, and in mutual silence, they spoke.

That was how she knew, now, that she was close.

Silna found the cub curled up in the snow beside the empty shell that had been its mother. She wondered whether Tuunbaq, ancient and yet still so very young, had known to take her soul before she passed. In any case, she would honour the great white bear by making use of her meat and fur. It was only appropriate. Nothing would be wasted. 

(She pushed back thoughts of the English healer, naked on the table, bones peeking out from beneath his half-eaten flesh. Nothing had been appropriate. Everything had been wasted.)

The cub nuzzled at her hand and she felt the warmth of its breath, even through her elkskin mittens. It had not been able to nurse for several days, judging by the mother's corpse, yet it was more than skin and bones and its soft, creamy coat retained a healthy sheen. Tuunbaq had indeed honoured its mother, as her soul drifted from her body. It was good to see Tuunbaq healthy, especially when all Silna's attempts to heal the poisoned flesh before had been unsuccessful. The tainted meat, the forks and the rusted chains had been bad enough, but nothing had hurt Tuunbaq's body or spirit so much as the dark obscenity of Cornelius Hickey's soul.

Within this bundle of white fur lived a multitude of souls but, thankfully, Silna did not feel any of Hickey's malice. She felt the courage of a warrior and the strong sensitivity of a sailor she had not known, the resolve of an Ice Master she had, and all those who came before them. Her father's absence still stung, but she would carry on his shamanistic duties when she returned to her people with the cub, her banishment finally over. He was dead and gone, but not forgotten. 

_ Never forgotten,  _ she reminded herself, as she walked into the cool winter sun with the cub, each of its plodding steps leaving a crisp paw print in freshly fallen snow.


End file.
